Troy Corser has high hopes for a positive finale to Foggy PETRONAS racing’s debut season at the French circuit of Magny-Cours.

The Australian former world champion was the fastest rider after the main teams tested at the circuit last week and is confident of staying with the front runners – providing the weather stays dry.

Troy said: “I am looking forward to this weekend. I am hoping the weather stays fine, as that would definitely make it easy for us. Chris Jentzen, who drives my motorhome, has been there since Sunday and says that one day is fine, one day windy and the next rainy – so it is pretty much what you would expect for this time of year. But, in the wet, the throttle connection is still a bit of a problem and we are down on torque, so we would struggle a bit. But there is no doubt that the engine has improved with the new cylinder heads. They have made it a lot easier to work with.

“I am normally pretty good at learning new circuits but I was a bit surprised to have the fastest time from the tests, although I didn’t really know what a good time was round there. I think Magny-Cours suits the FP1 as there are not too many mid-speed corners. They are all either very slow or very fast and so I don’t have to open the throttle in the middle of the corner. It’s a very point-and-shoot circuit, and hard on the brakes – similar to the ‘car park’ circuits in America. The track is also very narrow, so you end up on the outside pretty quickly. The tyre we had for the test seemed to be working okay. It was the harder of the two and the grip wasn’t the greatest but at least it was consistent.”